A Funding Application to Regional Projects Fund

Dear All at FreshChamberStartHubCouncil

We at Commonty Central feel pretty close to you guys - its as if we have all grown up together in this strangely compelling world of our Regional Arts Scene. Next month The Commonty will be 3 years old - during that time we have posted in excess of 2000 articles about what is going on in the arts locally (and stuck our oar into the national game too) - the blog has been visited more than 215,000 times and the list of people signed up to our weekly email is over 300.

We figure that we have all reached an important threshold together - you guys are all getting well set up and there is an air of anticipation about what happens next. The key thing here, we feel, is that things are moving into a new phase. The Commonty was set up to fulfill a need that people in the arts locally identified - to keep everyone in touch with what is going on. This was particularly important and useful during the process of us all re-inventing how the arts was run in our region. If you click on the 'Regional Arts Scene' tag in the Contents menu on the right you will see 190 articles tracking the story of the meetings in Rhonehouse, Dalbeattie, demise of DGArts, rise of Fresh Start etc etc. We believe that the Commonty now represents a vital archive of the recent history of the arts in D+G.

The Lost Supper - photo Colin Tennant

The question we have is 'What now?' after a bit of asking around people do seem to still see a role for The Commonty......could it become part of the future of FreshChamberStartHubCouncil?.......could it be one of the ways that our Area Convenors and Regional Convenor share information around the region?.....what of the 'independent voice' is there a place for that in the new tomorrow?....if so how can it be supported without losing its independence?

Hopefully you will be aware that, to this point, The Commonty has never received a penny in support from anyone. We are fully supportive of the direction of FreshChamberStartHubCouncil and would like to join the larger conversation about how we, as region and a community of creative people, move forward together and make the best of this amazing opportunity we have all made for ourselves and our area.

Now that the organisation of FreshChamberStartHubCouncil is moving onto a more professional footing we would propose getting together with you all to discuss ways that The Commonty can be be of best use in the future. Therefore we are writing to the Regional Projects Fund to ask for support to meet with your team to discuss options....then to consult with other and come back with a proposal for the future of The Commonty. Our gut feeling is that The Commonty could usefully morph into a new form as part of the communication network for our joint future - but, even if the result of chats is that The Commonty ends here, then we do think it will be important that it is properly archived and accessible as part of the story of how we reached this point.

We believe it is in the spirit of the new reality that The Commonty should be supported to be part of this discussion - should you wish a discussion to happen. We are therefore writing to request funding of £500 to:

• Consult with FreshChamberStartHubCouncil and the sector about the future role of The Commonty
• Research and develop proposals for a future role and/or an archive for The Commonty
• Present proposals for the future to FreshChamberStartHubCouncil.

The £500 would pay for the time spent on the above by the good folk of Commonty Central.

With all best wishes from all at 

--
The Commonty
South West Scotland Creative Practice Collective

http://thecommonty.blogspot.com